Colton 911: Cowboy's Rescue

by Marie Ferrarella

  And now this happened.

  “You have to bring her back,” Bellamy insisted. “I can’t lose her!”

  “Where did you last see her?” Jonah asked, trying to retrace Maggie’s steps.

  Bellamy closed her eyes, trying to clear her head and summon the memory. It didn’t come at first.

  “At the house.” Her eyes flew open. “The last time I saw her was at the house,” she exclaimed.

  “But she’s not there.” Donovan spoke up. “We went there are soon as we could,” he explained to his brothers.

  “Something awful’s happened to her, I just know it,” Bellamy declared, struggling to keep her tears back. “You have to—”

  Still clutching his arm tightly, Bellamy was beginning to make his hand seriously numb. Even so, Jonah smiled reassuringly at his future sister-in-law.

  “We will. We’ll find her, Bellamy. I promise,” he added. “But if I’m going to do that, I’m going to need the use of my arm,” he told her, looking pointedly down at her hand.

  Bellamy followed his gaze, totally oblivious to the fact that she was holding on to him so tightly.

  “Oh,” she cried, as surprised as he was that she was gripping his arm so hard. Belatedly, like a person waking up from a dream, she released her hold on him. Collecting herself, she asked, “You’ll let me know the second you’ve found her? One way or the other, you’ll let me know,” she begged.

  “If they get the phone lines working, I promise I’ll let you know as soon as I find her,” Jonah told Donovan’s fiancée.

  “As soon as we find her,” Dallas corrected. “We’re in this together, remember?” he reminded Jonah. “Don’t worry,” he told Bellamy. “Four sets of eyes are better than one.” And then he turned toward Jonah again because there was no denying that Jonah was the team leader. “Just in case your superhero radar is off,” he said, attempting to add just a little levity to what was a very dire situation.

  “Spread out, guys,” Jonah ordered, ignoring Dallas for the time being. “Before we go running off, beating the bushes for any sign of Maggie, let’s find out if anyone here saw her or talked to her before this storm decided to redecorate the landscape. Plenty of people here to talk to,” he added, gesturing around at the people who occupied the rec center. Still more were filing in by the hour.

  * * *

  Jonah felt he was getting nowhere. Questioning resident after shaken resident, he was forced to detach himself, putting up a wall between himself and those who were so very desperate to share their story with someone. He hated being so impersonal but needed to keep a clear head if he wanted to be able to find Maggie.

  And he did.

  Not just to keep his promise to Bellamy, but because he felt a special connection when it came to the woman he’d been tasked with finding. He remembered Maggie Reeves all too well from school, even though he was five years older than she was. He’d been a gawky kid back then, skinny as a rail until he’d started working on his parents’ ranch in his teens. He’d filled out then, but Maggie, Maggie had been born beautiful and only grew more so as time went by. He remembered that she’d even won the coveted title of Miss Austin in a beauty pageant. There had been other accolades along the way. But that was before she had gotten married.

  The marriage didn’t last, but he could have predicted that if anyone had asked. James Corgan might have been wealthy, but he was an amoral alley cat. All the money in the world couldn’t change that, Jonah thought as he continued questioning survivors. He never understood what Maggie had seen in James, but whatever it was, her vision cleared up soon enough and she had divorced him.

  And now Maggie was out there somewhere, hopefully alive—

  “Hey, Jonah, I found somebody who saw Maggie maybe an hour before the storm hit,” Forrest called out.

  Jonah looked up to see his brother trying hard not to limp as he made his way over. The former detective had Rae Lemmon with him. Adrenaline raced through Jonah as he instantly crossed to the duo, meeting them more than halfway.

  “You know where she went?” Jonah asked the young woman with Forrest.

  “I think so. Maggie talked to me just before she left.” The petite brunette nodded, as if that added weight to what she was about to say. “She told me she was going to Live Oak Ranch.”

  Jonah looked at Rae, puzzled. “Doesn’t that belong to her ex’s family?” he asked the woman. Maybe Rae had gotten her facts confused. “Why would she be going there?”

  Rae raised her slim shoulders in a helpless shrug. “I don’t know. Maggie said she was going there because she needed to uncover a secret.”

  “A secret?” Jonah echoed, in the dark as much as ever. He glanced at Forrest, who just shook his head. He obviously didn’t have a clue, either. “What secret?” Jonah asked the paralegal.

  “I don’t know,” Rae repeated helplessly. “She wouldn’t tell me anything. Maggie said she’d know more once she got there.” And then Rae remembered something. “She did say she had a map.”

  “A map.” Jonah was beginning to feel like a parrot, just repeating things that made no sense. He felt as if he’d been swallowed up by the hurricane and was now being tossed around without rhyme or reason. “Why would she need a map?” he asked. “Maggie lived on Live Oak Ranch when she was married to James, didn’t she?”

  “Yes,” Rae answered. “But she took the map with her because she said she needed to pinpoint the biggest tree on the ranch.” Rae shrugged again, feeling frustrated and helpless. She pressed her lips together, silently upbraiding herself that she hadn’t made Maggie tell her more. “She really wasn’t very clear, and I have to admit that I wasn’t paying much attention to what she was saying. I was too busy going over last-minute details for the wedding,” Rae confessed.

  Rae flushed. The excuse sounded so weak now that she said it out loud.

  “Not that it looks like that’s going to happen now, at least not on schedule,” she added in a small voice. Her tone shifted as she returned to the more important subject under discussion. She needed to tell Jonah anything that sounded even remotely relevant. The smallest thing could be instrumental in locating Maggie. “But I know Maggie—she gets something in her head, she doesn’t let it go. I’m positive that she was there somewhere on the ranch when the storm hit.”

  “And you’re sure about this?” Jonah pressed.

  He was still somewhat skeptical about this information. After all, it had been a significant amount of time since Maggie had gotten divorced and she and her husband had gone their separate ways. From what he had heard, hers wasn’t one of those divorces where the couple remained friends even after their marriage was dissolved. Maggie gave every indication that she didn’t want to have anything to do with her ex.

  So why would she suddenly go wandering around his family’s ranch?

  It didn’t make any sense to him.

  But sense or not, it was the only lead he had about Maggie’s last whereabouts, so unless he found out something that was more immediate, he was going to act on this.

  And he made up his mind that he was going to act on it alone.

  “Absolutely sure,” Rae told him solemnly. There was a slight hitch in her voice. “You’re going to find her, right?”

  “Right,” Jonah replied without a moment’s hesitation. “I’ll find her.” And he fully intended to do just that, even if it was the last thing he ever did.

  More reports of missing residents were coming in even as Jonah stood there, listening to Rae. The volunteer search and rescue organization he and his brothers belonged to was already stretched to the limit, not to mention exhausted. He wasn’t about to ask any of them for help, but he didn’t plan on stopping until he located Maggie. The thought of her out there, stranded, possibly in danger and clinging to life, wasn’t something he could live with if things took a turn for the worse.

  Even if he ha
dn’t already given his word to Bellamy and to Rae, he had made up his mind to do everything in his power to find Maggie.

  By the sound of it, the wind was picking up again. Jonah looked out the rec center windows and saw the trees bending like flexible dancers before the oncoming winds.

  Were they in for a second wave? It didn’t matter, he thought. He knew he needed to get out there now, before traveling on horseback became hazardous and maybe even impossible.

  “Thank you, Rae,” he told the distraught woman. “You’ve been a great help.”

  She began to say something more, but he didn’t have any time to waste. Jonah searched the area for someone he could charge with looking after Rae for now.

  “Forrest,” he called to his brother. The latter turned toward him after a moment, eyeing Jonah quizzically. “Look after Rae, will you?” he requested. “She seems like she could use a friendly shoulder to lean on.”

  Forrest didn’t look happy about the reassignment. “What about going to look for Maggie Reeves?” his brother asked.

  “I got this,” Jonah said, shrugging off the implied offer to help. “You take care of Ms. Lemmon and anyone else who might need you.”

  Forrest’s face darkened as he took offense. “I was shot in the leg, Jonah, not the head. I’m perfectly capable of going out there with you to look for Bellamy’s sister. Don’t treat me like I’m an invalid,” he warned his brother.

  Jonah backtracked. “I know you’re not an invalid,” he said gruffly. He wasn’t accustomed to trying to tread lightly around any of his brothers and doing so was tricky. “After you make sure Rae’s taken care of, go out with the others and search for survivors. And I’ll do the same,” he declared authoritatively.

  With that, Jonah headed out the door. He zipped up his rain slicker. Not that the outer garment would give him much protection if the storm got worse again. He supposed he was doing this more out of habit than anything else. If he followed a ritual, covering all the steps, maybe that would help him find Maggie.

  No stone unturned, he thought.

  Jonah hurried across the street toward what was left of the town’s stable. He and his brothers had housed their horses here to keep them from being left out in the open once the storm hit.

  Once inside, he made his way over to his horse, a sleek palomino. Aside from the horses, there was no one around.

  “How are you doing, Cody?” Jonah asked, taking time to interact with his mount before going out. He and Cody had been “partnered” for three years now. “Okay, boy, ready to play hero and earn your feed? I know, I know,” he said as he put the saddle on his horse and tightened the cinches, “I don’t want to go out, either. But there’s a crazy woman out there who needs us because she doesn’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain—or take shelter when a hurricane is predicted to come rolling through,” he said, talking to the palomino as if he was a person. Taking the horse’s reins in his hand, he swung into the saddle.

  “Let’s go do this. The sooner we find her, the sooner we can come back.”

  Cody whinnied as if he understood. Jonah never doubted that he did.

  Chapter 2

  “I don’t like this any better than you do,” Jonah told Cody as he urged his horse on through the increasingly inclement weather.

  He had been talking in a calm, steady voice ever since he and his horse had left the stable in Whisperwood. He wasn’t sure if he was talking for Cody’s benefit or his own, but it helped in both cases.

  The farther away from Whisperwood he went, the more Jonah found that he had to steadily raise his voice, because not only had the wind picked up, but so had the threat of rain.

  Actually, it wasn’t a threat any longer. Rain had turned into a reality, falling with a vengeance. It would recede, only to return, coming down harder than it had before.

  If this kept up, the chances of floods throughout the already-beaten-down area was a given. Jonah drew in his shoulders, trying vainly to stay dry. His rain slicker and Stetson were fighting a losing battle, but it wasn’t in him just to give up. There was a woman out there who needed to be rescued.

  “C’mon, where are you?” Jonah called out impatiently in his frustration.

  He did his best to scan as much of the surrounding area as possible. According to his calculations, he had ridden onto the Corgan ranch about fifteen, eighteen minutes ago. Because of the rain that was still coming down, his visibility was limited. He hadn’t been able to make out anything except for an occasional tree here and there. Certainly not a person.

  In any event, Maggie wasn’t near any of the trees he had made out.

  “Maybe she’s not here at all,” he said to Cody. “And we’re just wasting our time—not to mention that we’re seriously running the risk of drowning out here if it gets any worse.” Cody whinnied, as if agreeing with him. Despite the situation he found himself in, Jonah grinned. “I know, I know, we’re the ones who don’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain, not her. But legend has it Maggie’s as stubborn as hell and if she said she was coming out here to find answers, this is where she probably is—but where?” he asked, frustrated.

  Lowering his head, Jonah shoved his hat farther down on it, hoping to keep the wind from blowing it off.

  “You see her, Cody?” he asked the palomino. “Because I sure as hell don’t.”

  With one hand holding on to his hat, the other one wrapped around Cody’s reins, Jonah raised up from his saddle, standing as best he could in his stirrups. He was blinking furiously to keep the rain out of his eyes as he scanned the area again, searching for a familiar shape, or some indication that Maggie was indeed out here, or at least had passed this way.

  As he surveyed the area, Jonah realized that his horse had ridden in very close to this humongous oak tree. The tall, wide branches were offering him some degree of shelter from the rain—just in time, it seemed. The rain was coming down harder and harder now.

  Some sort of natural reflex had Jonah glancing up over his head. It was not unheard-of for animals to go climbing up into the first available tree they could find. It was a self-preservation instinct to keep them from being swept away in a storm or a flood. The animals that he knew reacted this way were mountain lions—and bears.

  The last thing he wanted was to be under a tree when a mountain lion or bear decided it wanted a snack more than it wanted to stay dry.

  But when Jonah looked up, it wasn’t a mountain lion or a bear that he saw.

  Maggie!

  Thank God.

  “A little old to be climbing trees, aren’t you?” Jonah asked her, amused despite the less than ideal conditions they found themselves in.

  Startled, Maggie had been so intent on holding on, she hadn’t even realized that he was there.

  “Oh lord,” she cried, “you are the answer to a prayer!”

  It had taken her more than a couple of moments to convince herself that she wasn’t hallucinating. After all, she had lost track of how long she had spent up here in this tree. She could hardly believe that she was finally going to be rescued. And if that wasn’t enough, this knight in shining armor was nothing short of gorgeous.

  Part of Maggie wasn’t fully convinced that she wasn’t imagining all this. That she really would be rescued. Her arms had all but gone numb from hanging on to the branch she had climbed up on eons ago. At this point, she couldn’t remember not being up here.

  Jonah slowly angled Cody, as well as himself, right beneath the woman he had come to rescue. He wrapped the horse’s reins around his saddle horn, then tightened his thighs about Cody’s flanks so that he could hold his position as steadily as possible.

  Having taken all the precautions he could, Jonah raised his arms. “Climb down,” he instructed the woman perched above him. “Don’t worry. If you slip, I’ll catch you.”

  Maggie looked down uncertainly. She reall
y had her doubts about his assurance. “That’s a pretty tall order,” she called back.

  Jonah could appreciate why she was so uneasy. There were several feet of space separating her from his outstretched arms.

  He reassessed the situation. “Are you going to make me climb up there and get you?”

  It was more of a challenge than a question. Or maybe she was just interpreting it that way. Maggie didn’t know. But she had never been the type of woman who would willingly cleave to the “damsel in distress” image. She wasn’t the type to be rescued, either. She preferred doing the rescuing, the way she had tried to come through for her parents.

  “Just hang on to your patience,” she told him, slowly shifting her weight so that she could start to make her way down.

  It took a second for her to release her grip on the branch, but she knew that it was either this or just staying where she was, clinging to a branch like some helpless female while this tall, dark and gorgeous specimen of a man played superhero. While that did intrigue her, it just wasn’t her way.

  Holding her breath, Maggie inched her way down.

  The branch swayed and groaned with every move she made—or maybe that was the wind that was groaning. She didn’t know. The only thing she did know was that she had to move slowly because there was no way in hell that she was going to come tumbling down out of this tree and wind up on the ground right in front of Mr. Magnificent’s horse.

  Watching her progress, Jonah grew steadily more uneasy. He continued to hold his arms up and opened. The wind yanked at his Stetson, then ripped it right off his head.

  “Damn,” he muttered.

  Maggie thought the remark was meant for her, but the next second she saw the cowboy’s dark Stetson fly by her and then it disappeared into the darkened distance.

  “I owe you a hat,” she told her rescuer, raising her voice so that he could hear her above the howling of the wind.